520 Transactio9ts. — Geology. 



miles. As air, water and earth waves follow the same laws 

 which are recognised by the theory of motion, I think I am 

 justified in holding that these special volcanic manifestations- 

 were by some means connected. 



A certain amount of confusion may arise in the minds of 

 persons not acquainted with the exact pronunciation of 

 names of places in the Pacific (the Tongese, for instance, 

 pronounce each vowel), and I will explain more fully this 

 name " Niu-afu." Mr. Tarvis, who resides there, spelt it 

 to me as I write it. Angas spells it "Nuia Foou." The Ad- 

 miralty sailing directions for the Central Pacific name it 

 " Niu-afu," or Good Hope Island. Other writers spell it 

 " Niu-fou." 



The little island, as I have said, lies about thirty-five 

 miles north and by west from Vavau. This name must not be 

 confused with Nei-afo, or Neafu, the name of the grand 

 harbour of the Island of Vavau itself ; nor with Nine, which 

 is the native name for Savage Island, an important island 

 standing by itself to the eastward, containing some five 

 thousand people. 



Again, confusion arises from the very nomenclature of 

 some of the islands. There is Fearn, or Hunter, Island, to 

 the south-west of Kandavu, named, I expect, after Captain 

 Fearn, of the " Hunter/' who cruised in the Pacific in 

 1790 to 1798, and discovered another Hunter Island to the 

 northward of Santa Cruz ; and upon the map of the Pacific 

 attached to this paper wdll be seen another Hunter Island to 

 the north-west of Fiji ; there are also some Hunter Isles in 

 the Marshall Group : so that we have no less than five 

 Hunter Islands, which must not be confused with each other. 



It was stated to me by a lady in Tonga that one sharp 

 earthquake shock occurred on the 8th October, 1894, about 

 the time of a severe earthquake at the New Hebrides ; also, 

 that she remembered experiencing a sharp shock about the 

 time of a late great earthquake in South America. If this 

 observer's dates are correct — and they were given to me in 

 perfect good faith — the position of Tonga would be an ad- 

 mirable one for a seismitic station. 



No doubt the argument can be used that water may be 

 always sinking through the earth's crust to the central heat, 

 which, converting it into steam, throws it back again by 

 means of the different safety-valves we call volcanoes. 

 Furthermore, that, as the crust of the earth is always in 

 movement, and contracting slightly by slickenside pressure, 

 our supply of water will have farther and farther to go to seek 

 the central heat ; volcanic safety-valves may grow fewer in 

 number, and the oceans eventually dry up. Volcanoes are 

 therefore our best friends, for when they cease we may know 



